Your child has now completed Phase 2, 3 and 4 Phonics. They should now be able to represent each of the 42 phonemes (for example the sounds n, ee ,or, igh, o)  with a grapheme (the letters used to represent that sound). They will also be able to read and spell CVC words, including simple two-syllable words and captions. They will know all letter names and be able to read and spell the tricky words taught so far.

In Phase 4 your children learnt to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants. They continued to learn how to read and spell tricky words. Phase 4 Tricky Words include so, do, out, like, have. when, some, come, what, said and were.

Phase 4 skills taught

To read and spell CVCC words (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) such as  bump, jump, went, tent, damp, bend, mend. 

To read and spell CCVC words such as spot, trip, swim

To spell the tricky words 

To decide if words are real or fake

To read words containing two or more syllables 

We are now currently working on Phase 5 a

In this phase we introduce some new GPCs in the same way as in previous phases. Five of these GPCs are known as split digraphs. They are a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e. These used to be taught as magic e but now it is recommended that children learn to recognise these in the same way as other graphemes but simply explaining that in these particular graphemes the two letters work as a team but they aren't directly next to each other.

The phonics play website is a great way to support your child's learning. It contains games which allows your child to practice the phonics phase they are learning.